Stop Boko Haram

While terrorist violence in the Mideast and the United States holds the headlines, there's a chilling background drumbeat in sub-Saharan Africa:

Boko Haram, the Islamist militants who seek to impose Sharia law there — and who have pledged allegiance to ISIS — are killing innocents by the thousands.

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And they are using children and the vulnerable as weapons.

Three attacks in northeast Nigeria left at least 33 people dead on Wednesday. Two bomb blasts in the city of Gombe killed scores more on Thursday. On Friday, three Nigerian girls blew themselves up, killing at least 13 people.

These are the same radical jihadists who abducted 200 girls from a school last year — as part of a campaign that has killed an estimated 15,000 people and left more than a million homeless since 2009.

Nigeria's new president, Muhammadu Buhari, who won election on a promise to beat back Boko Haram, is set to meet with President Obama Monday in Washington, ahead of Obama's trip to Ethiopia and Kenya.

America, and everyone in Africa who loves human rights, must unite against Boko Haram's barbaric war against African progress and defeat it.